Monday, September 12, 2005

Bad News

It's a standing joke among the president's top aides: who gets to deliver the bad news? Warm and hearty in public, Bush can be cold and snappish in private ...

The bad news on this early morning, Tuesday, Aug. 30, some 24 hours after Hurricane Katrina had ripped through New Orleans, was that the president would have to cut short his five-week vacation by a couple of days and return to Washington.

The president's chief of staff, Andrew Card; his deputy chief of staff, Joe Hagin; his counselor, Dan Bartlett, and his spokesman, Scott McClellan, held a conference call to discuss the question of the president's early return and the delicate task of telling him. Hagin, it was decided, as senior aide on the ground, would do the deed. ...

1 comment:

stankyfish
said...

I had to stop reading that article after the first page. I find it very scary that someone in such a powerful position can so steadfastly ignore what's going on around him and absolutely refuse to reconsider his opinion on matters -- even when it becomes apparent that he might be wrong. When you're a private citizen, it just makes you ignorant. When you're the president, it makes you ignorant and dangerous.

Even Einstein had to reconsider his views and ultimately accept quantum mechanics after his initial rejection ("God does not play dice with the universe.")

This president believes that unwavering resolve is a deeper virtue than being right. That has been the hallmark of his presidency and the cause of an immense amount of unnecessary pain and suffering of those he was elected to lead.